An investigation into pupils' spatial perception and their interpretation of geometrical drawings at junior secondary school level

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to explore, firstly, how pupils interpret their perception of figural information at junior secondary school level. Secondly, an attempt was made to assess the balance between the visual mode and the verbal-logical thought which may determine the most frequently used ability in processing mathematical information. Thus it was an objective to investigate the role played by perceptual and spatial modes of thinking in mathematical problem-solving as well as their relation to mathematical abilities of the learner, gender differences, the acquisition of geometrical concept and laterality related differences was also researched. Results indicated that whereas boys and girls differed significantly in their perceptual and spatial skills and in geometry performance, differences in interpretation of figural information were less marked. Boys achieved generally higher marks in the three questionnaires than girls. The correlations between geometry achievement and spatial skills ranged from medium to large effect size, indicating that acquisition-related differences exist at junior secondary school level. The mathematical abilities of learners appeared to be reliable predictors of achievements in spatial tasks. The interviews showed that the majority of the junior secondary pupils are in a transitional stage between the relative global state and the analytical state, preferring mathematical computations and procedures rather than the usage of spatial abilities in problem-solving. An imbalance between applying the visual mode and using verbal-logical thought consequently occurred. Due to the small number of left-handed pupils in the research group, the influence of laterality on spatial perception and interpretation of geometrical drawings could not be determined.